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Verizon to Offer Extended Area Calling Plan In 38 More Illinois Exchanges Beginning February 19

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Verizon customers in 38 additional exchanges now can take advantage of a new local calling plan that can save them money while giving them larger local calling areas.

The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) has approved the extended area service (EAS) plan which will result in changes in the way some calls are billed and dialed.

Under the extended area calling plan, Verizon customers can call additional nearby communities without paying long-distance charges and by dialing just seven or 10 digits, instead of the 1 + 10 digits they previously dialed.

The new plan allows residential and business customers to call all communities within the same market service area (MSA) and a 15-mile radius of their own exchange without paying local toll charges. All such calls are considered local.

With the plan, customers dial seven digits to reach other numbers within their area code and MSA and dial 10 digits (area code + telephone number) to reach numbers in all other area codes within the new 15-mile local calling radius.

Customers in the exchanges that were offered Extended Area Service last year automatically now have EAS as a standard part of their basic local calling area. The current monthly service charge and billing remain the same. Those exchanges are: Annapolis, Calhoun, Fayetteville, Flora, Hardinville, Hecker, Mascoutah, Millstadt, New Baden, Robinson, Summerfield, Wendelin and Westview.

The extended calling plan is currently available to Verizon customers in 328 exchanges across the state. The company plans to request permission to make the plan available to additional Verizon customers in the state later this year.

Under the new calling plan, local calls to additional nearby communities are priced at current, local Usage Sensitive Service rates. Usage Sensitive Service is $17.02 monthly, plus customers pay a call-connection charge of 3 cents per call and 1.8 cents per minute for a call.

The cost of calls within a customer's home exchange remain the same; residential customers currently pay 3.4 cents per call with no per-minute calling charges. Business customers currently pay a call-connection charge of 1.88 cents and .93 cents per minute. These charges are discounted 50 percent on weekends, holidays and from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays.

Under the extended calling area plan, residential customers can also select the
11-cents-per-call option. Under this option, they pay the same monthly fee as before, $17.02, plus a flat, 11-cents-per-call charge with no per-minute charge for calls to nearby communities. Calls within the home exchange will remain 3.4 cents each, with no per-minute calling charges. These charges also are discounted 50 percent on weekends, holidays and from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays.

Details of the proposed calling plan have been provided to Verizon customers in the 38 additional Illinois exchanges in their phone bills.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with 132.1 million access line equivalents and 29.4 million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world. A Fortune 10 company with more than $67 billion in annual revenues and approximately 247,000 employees, Verizon's global presence extends to more than 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

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New Local Calling AreasExtended Area Service Calling Plan

The following list identifies communities that are in the local calling area of each of the affected exchanges under Verizon's extended area calling plan. New local calling areas are in bold type.